Changing Lanes
by Linth
Summary: My version of what happened in the three years before the androids came. Sticking to the clues given by the tvshow. No OOCness, no yamcha bashings. Beginning is very standard, but gets much better in later chapters. Give it a try!
1. A little black dot

**Authors Note: **

Hi!

I'm Linth, eighteen years old. I always liked reading fanfiction, so I decided I would have a shot at writing one myself. This is my first fanfiction ever.

I'm from Holland, so if you see any grammar or spelling mistakes, please notify me, I know how annoying they can get. I've tried to pay attention to using the right time, though…

This is my version of what happened in those three famous years before the androids attack between Bulma, Yamcha and Vegeta. I'm using changing POV's in a he/she kind of story. (Not an I-story)

I wanted to write a story totally based on the clues that were given to us in the tv-show. I'm not going to change any of this. Furthermore, I'm going to try and NOT cause a 'style-break', meaning I will use the language that is used by the characters in the tv-show.

**Critics are welcome!** That is, as long as it's helpful to improving the story…

Tell me what you think!

Read & Review…

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor possess, nor keep DBZ.

* * *

"Oh, and Bulma? I hope you have a healthy baby!" Goku said triumphantly. After that he blasted off in the sky, leaving Bulma and the others dumbfounded.

"Uhm, Bulma? What did he mean? Are you going to be a mum?" Krillin asked her.

No way! I don't know _what_ Goku was talking about.

Yamcha blushed and said: "Well, he was trying to say, maybe it's about time we got married and started a family huh? I mean, it's not like you're getting any younger…

"And just what do you mean by that?" Bulma shot at him. "Are you saying I'm _old_?"

"No! No! Of course not"

Yeah right, Bulma thought and glared at him. Then she folded her arms over her chest, turned around and stuck her nose in the air in a very conceited way. "I don't believe you" she answered him.

"Then suit yourself! I'm outta here!" he yelled, also getting angry.

Suddenly Bulma found herself left alone. Everyone had just flown off! How was she supposed to get home? Even Yamcha had just left her there without second thought! Oh, the nerve of that guy! He knew her well enough to realize she didn't mean it when she agreed to "finding herself another ride home".

Then again, she had yelled "FINE!" in his face, but the whole Z gang knew, well, _everyone_ knew she had a bit of a temper sometimes, no matter how much she hated to admit that. Yamcha had carried her for at least three miles, so the ship must be around 4 miles away, Bulma thought.

The Saiyan Prince watched the woman standing there, staring at the sky with a thoughtful look on her face. He could tell she was annoyed about something. Probably that stupid earth weakling Yamcha. The fool had just left her there. But she had agreed to it herself. He had stayed a little while longer to get rid of Frieza's spaceship, taking some valuable things with him, of course. Slightly amused at the whole scene, Vegeta decided HE wasn't going to be the one to fly the woman to her house. She had gotten herself into this, then she could get out herself.

Bulma was still standing there when she spotted a dot of black hair above some rocks. Of course! Yamcha was hiding. She wondered why she hadn't thought of that before, it was so like him to do something that childish.

"All right Yamcha, you can come out now!" she yelled.

Vegeta was about to return to Capsule Corp. when he heard the woman's screams.

"The idiot has left a long time ago" he said, stepping away from the rocks.

Bulma turned a little pink, realizing she had just thought Vegeta to be Yamcha.

"I saw him leave myself" Vegeta went on.

"What" Bulma screamed, rapidly regaining her composure. "So you're saying he actually had the nerve to leave me here? I can't believe that man!" She weighed her chances, should she ask…? No, Vegeta would never do anything for somebody else if there was nothing in it for him. But then again…

Too late. Vegeta blasted off in the sky towards her house.

"I'm not going to let that bastard get away with this and I'm not the kind of girl to just give up! I'll show them I can get home myself perfectly!"

And she walked in the direction of the ship.

* * *

He needed to train! Vegeta thought wryly. With that new technique Kakarot learned, he definitely had another advantage on him and he couldn't let a third class Saiyan get away with surpassing him, the prince of them all!

He had put the machine on 150gs and was now doing push-ups on one finger. With those androids coming - that is _if_ they would even come, which he seriously doubted – Kakarot would of course start training again, more and more, meaning HE had to train at least twice as hard. He intended on doing a little more than that, just to be sure. That's why he had threatened the old man a little, he insisted on training three times the gravity level Kakarot had trained at. He would soon reach it if he kept this speed up. And then, finally he would defeat Kakarot and become what he was supposed to be, the strongest in the universe.

Frieza had not been wrong, the Saiyans had indeed intended on a mass attack on his ship. Of course, little did they know he was that strong. They had only seen his first form after all. But, the worst thing was, he had been the reason for it. When Frieza had taken him away from the royal palace, away from the training sessions with his father, away from his mother, something inside his father had snapped. Now, he was the cause of his fathers demise and of the destruction of his entire planet. Of course, they all would have died either way. Had they attacked then they still would have been no match for Frieza. And they couldn't have used their full strength, because he had been inside the ship somewhere and although he was quite strong (as a Saiyan Prince should be) he wouldn't have been able block all of their combined energy waves at the time.

He finished doing the 1000 push-ups and switched to sit-ups.

Still, it was the only thing he had ever felt a little guilty about. But he had pushed that feeling aside for so long that right now he didn't even remember what guilt felt like. He had become immune for it. He banned al thought from his head and finished his sit-ups.

The evening was coming, it was already starting to get dark. He knew the mother of the woman would soon call him for dinner, with her awful squeaky voice, so he might as well save his ears and go there now.

As he headed towards the kitchen, he saw the woman and her father sitting outside. He was putting something white, that looked a lot like what humans call toilet paper, around her foot. He raised an eyebrow and wondered what it was for, until he heard the woman cry out

"Ouch! Be careful dad"

"You're lucky it's not broken, you could have hurt yourself a lot worse" Mr. Briefs said.

Ah, so the woman was hurt.

"How did this happen anyway?" he went on

"Oh, I tried to climb a rock to get on the other side, but I slipped and fell, while my foot was still stuck in a hole. It took me ages to get it out" Bulma explained.

"I see. There, all done" Mr. Briefs replied as he finished wrapping the bandages around Bulma's ankle. Vegeta now saw she also had multiple scratches on her arms and legs. It was nothing too bad, considering she was a human it would all be gone within a week, he quickly counted. A Saiyan would have been healed in less than a day, even the women.

He shrugged and went inside, where a delighted Bunny was already pouring him some coffee.

* * *

Yamcha was throwing fast punches in the air and Puar was cheering him on. This week had been terrible. He was still angry, even though he and Bulma had made up. Or sort of made up. At least he was welcome again around the Capsule Corp. grounds.

First of all, Vegeta had returned to the planet. That arrogant ass had just come striding out of that space-ship of his, thinking he was welcome here. Just when peace and quiet had returned and he had wanted to pay some serious attention to his girlfriend, she told him she had had a dream about Vegeta _kissing_ her, for goodness sake. It was like she had put a knife in his heart.

But he was about to let it slip, thinking they wouldn't ever see Vegeta again anyway, they saw him land on earth.

Even though it was foolish to think anything like that would ever happen he had immediately shot at him: "Vegeta, what do you want?"

"I was hoping Kakarot might have returned"

At this Yamcha had been slightly taken aback. "What? You mean you never found him in space?"

"Don't remind me" Vegeta answered threateningly "I'm angry enough to hurt someone and pounding you might just be the therapy I need."

But he never got that chance, because right then Bulma stepped in.

"Uh guys? What's that awful smell? Oh, its you" she'd stated. Yamcha had been stunned, no, thoroughly amazed at her courage. She seemed to have no fear whatsoever for Vegeta. When even he, who was a lot stronger than her, had been afraid.

"When is the last time you bathed, buddy? You need a bath! Please…this way…" she'd continued in a way that you'd say she had never thought of the possibility of him refusing. Just _how_ did she do that? It was…female charm, he concluded and that very thought had made him angrier with the minute. But Vegeta still hadn't gone anywhere, until Bulma'd said: "Well, what are you waiting for? You want me to roll out the red carpet?"

At first, Yamcha had thought he was going to kill her, or at least hurt her in some way for mocking him. But then, Yamcha had seen the anger somehow melt off his face and he had followed her inside.

He had believed that Vegeta had just decided she was right and therefore let it slip. But when he'd finished his shower and she had given him the pink shirt (which she had obviously done on purpose) and she had mocked him _again_, he didn't do anything but say "Hn." But the most frustrating thing about it, was that the shirt, A PINK SHIRT, for goodness sake, had actually looked good on the guy. Bulma never let _him_ wear pink, she thought it made him look like a little girl and somewhere deep inside Yamcha knew she was right.

Even the mysterious boy from the future had liked the shirt! It was enraging, and still, ridiculously enough, Yamcha couldn't quite figure out just why he would be angry at that…

* * *

A/N: There! Next chapter: How is Bulma doing? Yamcha continues his review on the passed week and I might throw in some Vegeta... :) Read & Review please! 


	2. Too much of a distraction?

**A/N: **Thanks for the great reviews, so far I've only had appreciative ones, so I've decided to continue. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 2

Bulma sighed. It was incredible how boring life could be sometimes. She desperately needed some suspension in her life, but all her friends were busy training for the androids. She already hated those androids, just for doing that!

She decided she'd start on some of the books her mum had picked up from the library. They were mostly stupid romances, which she actually enjoyed reading. Yes, she was that shallow. Had she gone herself, then she would've gotten some science magazines, too. Then she could've had a good laugh at peoples _'new'_ inventions. Most of the times she or her dad had already thought of that years ago, but decided it wouldn't sell. Usually it turned out they had been right. First they'd have succes for a few months, then the complaints would start coming or their invention would be outdated. She smiled at the thought of it.

But she still couldn't move around easily and when her mum had offered to go, she had gladly accepted. Luckily most of the scratches had gone by now, but her ankle was still a but bruised. Books would be good, then she'd finally have something else to worry about than her foot and that stupid boyfriend of hers!

Their relationship wasn't very good at the moment, but they had had their ups and downs before. At the moment they were mad, because of what happened when Frieza came to earth, last Friday.

She'd given Yamcha hell when he stopped by yesterday.

Flashback

"Hi Bulma!" he greeted her happily, while kissing her forehead.

Bulma's expression turned icy. That's when Yamcha saw her foot, and knew something was wrong. "What happened to you?" he asked.

"YOU happened, that's what!" she shot at him.

"HUH?"

"You _left_ me, remember?"

"NO, I DIDN'T? I still want to be your boyfriend! Yamcha hastily said, totally missing the point. "I don't know what you're talking about.

"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about! You just left me standing there, with no way to get home!"

"I figured somebody else would give you a ride home!"

"Of course not! Everybody wanted to start their training immediately or, in Goku's case, tell their wives what happened!

"I'm sorry. I thought you didn't want me to fly you home anymore, since you got angry about the old-stuff and so…"

"That's no reason! And, by the way, I had _every_ right to be angry at you! YOU CALLED ME OLD!"

"I DID NOT! I only said you weren't getting any younger!"

"That's the same!"

"Hey! I already said I was sorry" Yes, he did, but Bulma still couldn't let it go.

"Fine!" she answered. "Why are you here anyway? Shouldn't you be training for the androids too?"

Yamcha was relieved that she didn't go on about it. "That's why I came here, I figured since Vegeta is training here, I could too."

"Oh I see, but I only have one Gravity Room……"

"And I can't use that?"

"No, Vegeta's already using it."

"What? So you're saying Vegeta has some kind of privilege of using the thing? He can, but I can't? That's ridiculous. I'm your boyfriend! Why didn't you make me one?"

"My dad made it! And you know what Vegeta is like! He's claimed it and he probably thinks he's got every right to do so, since he's the –she inserted a high mimicking voice – PRINCE OF ALL SAYAINS!

Plus, we need Vegeta for the battle and I hate to say it, but he _is_ stronger than you, so he does need it more…"

"Yeah right!" I could be just as tough, Yamcha thought. Just a little training and I'm just as strong as he is!

"But you can train in the backyard! And if you need any tools, I will help!" Bulma said, knowing where this was going.

"Fine. I'll do that, then." Yamcha said. But I'm not happy about it, he thought wryly. And he walked outside.

End Flashback

I hope he's not too angry anymore. There she went, worrying about him yet again. If she didn't worry, she was bored, and if she was bored, she started worrying again! It was a vicious cycle!

Anything was better than being this bored!

At first she had played the role of peacekeeper between Yamcha and Vegeta, which she had actually liked doing.

It was necessary too. Somehow those two seemed to dislike each other a lot more than they disliked anyone else. Yes, even Vegeta, who probably never liked anyone, seemed to have developed a special treatment of constant hate for Yamcha. She wondered why.

Yamcha's side she could understand: Obviously he was somewhat frightened of Vegeta, he _had_ after all killed him once. That was not really true though, actually those green Saba…err…Saia…whatever little men of him had. Saibamen! Yeah, that was it. And maybe he was scared because Vegeta was such a lot stronger, and Yamcha had always been 'easily scared', compared to Goku, of course. Goku always took a challenge head-on, even if he had no chance of winning. Truth is, Vegeta is not only stronger than Yamcha, he's also smarter. He knew immediately it was him when Frieza wanted to destroy earth, this Friday. And again, they fought over it. Of course, Vegeta must've known Frieza a lot better than Yamcha, since he's been in his army for a long time and Yamcha had never seen Frieza before. But Vegeta couldn't sense power levels at that stage, otherwise he wouldn't have had the scouter when he first came to earth.

Vegeta was really something different. She could see why Yamcha hated him.

But Vegeta himself…she had no idea why he would hate Yamcha more than he hated any of the others. Maybe because he was human, but then again, Krillin was a human too, and he never quarreled with Krillin. Maybe because Yamcha was around more…that could be it. But what was wrong with being around? Plus, _she _was a human herself! And she was around a lot too. He had never really hated her. At least she didn't get that impression. Maybe he had some kind of respect towards women. She grinned at the thought. Yes. Vegeta respecting women. Now she was chuckling out loud.

She sighed again. Since it didn't look like something exiting was going to happen anytime soon, she might as well concentrate on somebody else's life, or in this case, somebody else's fictional life. And she opened one of the books.

* * *

Aargh! That Vegeta, he thinks he's so tough in that little capsule of his training at 300 times gravity. Well, I'll show him that he's not half as tough as he pretends to be. I'll show him that I can be just as tough as he is! Yamcha thought.

"Let's take five, Puar" Yamcha said "I want to see what Vegeta is up to in there. He slowly started to walk towards the capsule, trying to remain out of sight at all times. But Vegeta was way to busy to be paying attention to him, anyway.

"I guess this is what they mean by taking it to the limit, huh Yamcha?" Puar asked.

"Shhh, quiet Puar, and keep your head down!"

"_Initiate gravity level, 300 times planet's normal gravity._" The machine said.

"_Initiate defence program level five. Assuming defence formation"_

They watched Vegeta as he fought the robots. They could see he could hardly defend himself against the droids. One of the droids shot an energy wave at him, and he quickly jumped into the air. The energy wave was absorbed by another droids, only to be shot at him once again. This went on for a couple of minutes.

Until Vegeta fell to the ground. Yamcha held his breath. The energy wave hit Vegeta in an explosion and Yamcha and Puar were thrown backwards.

"_Assuming defence formation, level maximum"_ the machine said. Vegeta's eyes became big as the droids shot another energy wave at him. He got up, which took an immense amount of power. He made wrists and powered up. In a sudden explosion of power the droids were thrown aback _"Warning…overload…overload…error…error"_ They still said.

Boy, talk about a radical training program! Yamcha thought. But he still didn't let go of his intentions.

That night he sneaked up on the Gravity Room. He entered and switched on the lights. Whatever Vegeta can take, I can take too! He stated inside his head.

He turned the machine to 300gs and felt horror. This was amazing, he was going to be squashed like a bug! There was _no way_ anyone could take this…yet he had seen Vegeta do it this very same day! He would resist!

He remained standing for a while, but soon fell on his knees. That's when he decided to give up. But, no! Why did Bulma place the off button this high! Shouldn't there be some kind of emergency stop all the way at the bottom?

But there wasn't, or at least, he couldn't find one.

He _had _to turn it off, or he would die! Boy, would Vegeta laugh at him for that. Somehow that thought seemed to give him renewed strength. With all of his willpower he slowly lifted his hand and reached for the 'off' button. Finally he managed to get to it.

"_Normal gravity restored"_ the machine said.

Thank Kami! Yamcha thought. Never again.

* * *

Somebody had been in here. Vegeta could smell it. It was the idiot! That arrogant little weakling!

He quickly paced back to the house. He'd ask the woman why she'd let that moron train in _his_ Gravity Room. He had to go there anyway, because he wanted to know if the old man had already repaired those droids he destroyed yesterday.

"Woman!" Vegeta demanded "Where are you?"

"My name is Bulma and I'm right here!" she shot back at him, looking up from her book. Great, she thought, right when '_THE_ kiss' was about to come up, she was disturbed! Not to mention by _him!_

"What do you want?" she asked him.

"Why did you let that idiot boyfriend of yours train in my GR?"

"What do you mean. I didn't do such a thing!"

"Don't fool me woman! His smell was all over the place!"

"Impossible. I told him he wasn't allowed to train in it." And that he'd better not try, if he wanted to live, she added in her mind.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Vegeta inquired.

Suddenly he saw a smile creep upon her face. Like she…was mocking him? No, this was different. More like…like she'd figured out something…like she understood.

So, that's why! Bulma thought, all forgetting about Vegeta.

This night Yamcha had been very late when he entered her room. They usually slept in the same bed when he was around. This time she had already been sleeping for hours, when he finally came in. He wouldn't tell her why he was so late. He said he'd been training longer, but she didn't really believe him, although he did look exhausted. And he was really sweaty too. She remembered commanding him to take a shower first, she wouldn't share her bed with such a smelly person.

But now she knew. He'd been secretly training in the gravity room. Ha!

And that's why he left this morning.

Yeah, right, she was a distraction! No, buddy, you were just afraid Vegeta would find out you've been using his gravity room. Or trying to use…since you probably couldn't take it.

She didn't know how much stronger Vegeta was exactly, but he seemed to be able to scare Yamcha a lot, so he must be quite a bit stronger. Too her it was all the same. Well, not totally though…Vegeta did seem to have more brains, or so to say, he just used them more than Yamcha used his. But when it came to fighting all she could tell was that Yamcha was strong, Vegeta was very strong and Goku was very very very strong. In the end, they were all 'strong'. There was no point in keeping count of their power levels… and it was impossible to do so. The scouter she once had wasn't even able to measure Goku's powerlevel at the time, so it would definitely break now. If she had had another, that is. But she didn't. If she had had one, she would have upgraded it a long time ago.

"Are you listening to me woman?" Vegeta roared.

"What? Oh! Well, he shouldn't bother you any more…he left this morning to train somewhere else. It seems I was 'too much of a distraction'.

"Hn" he said and off he went to search for his beloved droids.


	3. Explosion

Chapter 3

Yamcha flew home in his air car. He had just told his girlfriend one of the biggest lies of the century. Bulma wasn't a distraction at all. She had never been the kind of girl to bother you when something really important was up.

No, he figured he couldn't concentrate with Vegeta around. That jerk! What if he ever found out what he had done? He'd never stop rubbing it in.

Yamcha had always known he wasn't really that tough, and he was always much more scared when a battle was about to come up than Goku, or any of the others for that matter. Yet, he had been able to keep up with them, he wasn't sitting at home with Oolong and Yajirobe and that counted for something too, didn't it?

He still had to think of another place to train. "Guess I'll be training at the gym again then, don't you think so, Puar? Or have you got any better ideas?"

"No, at home you would just ruin your house, there isn't enough room" Puar squealed.

"I'll start again tomorrow. Let's just call it a day for now".

Quite a few weeks passed, with Yamcha training at the gym, Vegeta never leaving the Gravity Room, and Bulma sitting around the house doing nothing. Finally her foot healed and she was able to walk around again. As weeks turned into months, Yamcha started missing Bulma somewhat.

And so Yamcha decided to pay his girlfriend a visit and maybe cheer her up a little.

* * *

"Yamcha!" Bulma cheered. "I didn't expect you!"

"I needed a break. It's been weeks since I last saw you…I missed you. So that's why I'm taking you to the movies tonight. Your pick."

"Greaat!" Bulma couldn't quite believe her luck. Weeks of complete boredom had passed and finally someone thought about her. She had already finished watching the complete set of dvd's of 'Clueless', her favourite soap opera. She had spent hours in the bathtub, always slept long…simply because there was nothing to do.

"All right, we'll see 'No way out', you know, that horror movie.. the première was last Thursday." Bulma said. "I hoped you would pick that one!" Yamcha said happily.

"Oh, by the way, my Mum is making lasagne tonight…" - Yamcha's face lit up – "…I'll ask her to set another plate"

Until dinner they played a game of yathzee, which Yamcha won.

* * *

"Vegeta! Dinner is ready!"

Vegeta scowled and finished his combo. He wasn't even hungry yet! Then again he'd rather have his dinner while it was hot and he didn't want to have to warm it up later. It wouldn't be half as tasty. No matter how annoying the mother of the woman was, he had to admit, she was a good cook. Though the Briefs family had many servants, the mother always insisted on cooking herself.

He turned and headed for the kitchen, only to find it empty. Where had they gone?

He located a stronger, ki-level.

So, the idiot had returned. Or, was he just here to visit the woman? As long as he didn't think he could use _his_ gravity room again.

They were in the dining room, Vegeta realised, which they hardly ever used. He wondered what the occasion was.

"Oh, there you are!" Bunny said. "Come on, have a seat. We are dining here tonight" Everybody turned around to watch him.

Vegeta accidentally raised an eyebrow. "To celebrate that Yamcha is here after such a long time." Bunny immediately answered.

"So, you and Yamcha are going out tonight?" Bunny asked her daughter. "Yes, we're going to see that new horror movie 'No way out'.

Vegeta grunted inwardly. The fool was giving up precious training time to be with the woman. But then, he would never achieve a strength great enough to beat the androids, not before they were here and probably never. Even if he trained day and night. So, in a way, the moron really didn't need to train. It was useless. But Vegeta was sure that Yamcha didn't realise that himself.

He'd show the moron just how much stronger he was.

Meanwhile, the second course (the lasagne) was placed in front of him. The soup had definitely tasted great.

"I want you to upgrade the GR" Vegeta said to Mr. Briefs.

"I was afraid you would soon start saying that…and so I already made you a new one" Mr. Briefs replied, much to everyone's asthonishment, including Vegeta's.

"This new GR can go up too 450 times earth's normal gravity…and that's not all. It is able to increase the gravity gradually and its much more solid. It also contains a bath tub, shower, bedroom and a fridge and a microwave. It's like a small house, you could actually live in there. Until you need a restock of course." Mr. Briefs said, clearly proud of himself. "It should keep you busy for a while" he continued.

"It will do." Vegeta said, but actually he was quite impressed. Now he could eat whenever he wanted to, sleep whenever he wanted to and he didn't have to run into the woman and her stupid mate anymore.

Yamcha and Bulma looked at Vegeta in awe. He had already surpassed 300gs? Bulma thought. Man! That guy really is strong.

It's incredible, Yamcha thought, it's almost impossible. He looked at his girlfriend. She looked at Vegeta admiringly. He growled. Great, that monster had just tried to impress his girlfriend, and he had actually succeeded in doing so.

After dinner to two of them left in a hurry. Bulma had changed in jeans and blue and grey striped boat-neck sweater, it would most likely be cold outside…since it was already the end of February. They put on their coats and left in Yamcha's air car.

Mr. Briefs showed Vegeta the new gravity room, which he gladly accepted. He commenced his training immediately.

* * *

Bulma and Yamcha returned home. The film had been great, Bulma thought. They had been sitting together in the dark. When Mira was lost in the maze and the murderer had been after her with that huge knife she had pretended to be very scared and cuddled away in Yamcha's arms. It had been really cosy. She smiled.

"Yamcha?" Bulma asked. "Please stay for a while? I don't want to be this bored anymore…surely you can train here again for some time? You could use the old gravity room?"

At that Yamcha jumped about two meters into the air. "Errrr…no thanks.. I won't be needing that GR, but I guess I could stay… do you happen to have some other training things?" he replied

"Anything you need" Bulma smiled again.

March came and Vegeta was never coming out of his new GR. He now trained day and night, stopping only to get a few hours of sleep and something to eat.

Yamcha trained outside of the big CC mansion, thus taking a few more breaks then he had actually intended, to have some fun with Bulma.

Bulma was reading a magazine, but it was actually really boring. Yamcha had been training for three days straight now. Her Mum walked in. "Bulma! I stopped by the bakery today and ook what I got for us! Showing of an enormous variation of cakes, cookies (or for the English amongst you guys…biscuits) and pie. "Nice huh! Don't these look great? Now, which one do you want?"

"They're all yours, Mum, I'm not very hungry" Bulma answered.

"Why Bulma, what's wrong with you? Are you feeling lonely because all the boys are spending all their time training in stead of spending time with you? That's it, isn't it, dear?"

Bulma sighed…her mother really knew her too well.

"Oh, please Mum! I'm just not very hungry!" she shouted.

Her dad also entered the room now. "I'm beginning to think that Vegeta is indestructible. It wasn't enough to have the simulator create 300 times gravity for him and now he's even demanding I make some more equipment for him. And all he's going to do is break it!"

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me at all." Bulma said.

"Well, I think it's great he's working so hard."

"Oh sure he's training hard, but don't you think he's overdoing it a little bit?"

"Oh, no! I think it's very admirable. In my days a guy who showed that much dedication to anything was definitely husband-material." Both Bulma and her father looked at Bunny astounded. To think of Vegeta in such a way had never even occurred to Bulma. Her Mum could really make you see things from a different point of view, sometimes. "A girl would have to be crazy to let him get away, I tell you." Bunny continued. She took a small sip from her coffee. Suddenly she came back to reality. "Oh my! What am I saying? I'm a married woman!" she said, shocked.

And shocked was exactly what Bulma was. So her Mum was actually saying that she thought Vegeta would make a good husband? That, were she not married, she wouldn't have let him get away and that she would marry him. That's ridiculous!

Suddenly they heard an gigantic explosion. Bulma, who had suddenly decided she _was_ a little hungry, ended up having half her cake smudged onto her face. The whole masion shuddered at the power of the explosion.

Yamcha stormed into their living room. "What's happening?" he yelled in panick. "Is it an earthquake or something?"

Bulma was about to wipe off her face with her fathers handkerchief when the truth sunk in. Vegeta. NO! Bulma thought...he couldn't have survived that. Still, this was Vegeta they were talking about. He_ must_ have survived! She simply wouldn't have it any other way.

She ran out of the living room, outside to the GR. "Vegeetaaa! Vegetaaa!" Oh, no, please Kami, don't let him be dead! Yamcha was right beside her. "I knew this would happen," he said, "he's been trying to do the impossible.

"Where is he?" Bulma asked, but Vegeta was nowhere to be seen.

Bulma panicked and started moving rocks at random. He can't be dead.

Suddenly a hand shot up from under the pile of rubbish. Bulma shrieked and was thrown of her feet. He pulled himself up. "A-are you okay!" Bulma stuttered.

"Of course I'm alright! I'm a warrior!" Vegeta managed to say. He'd show them all just how tough he was. Of course he could handle such little scratches. Bulma sighed with relief.

"How dare you, you dweep! You almost wrecked my house!" Bulma shot, recovering from her shock. "What are you trying to prove?"

He did feel a little light-headed though. That last blast had taken up all his energy.

He fell to the ground. Bulma shrieked and hurried over to him.

"Oh, no! You're hurt!"

She pulled him close to her and looked in his eyes.

"Go! I don't need help. I've got training to do.

"You've got to stop training for a while! I mean, look at you…you're a complete wreck!

"But I feel fine! I'm a sayain. I can take a little pain, it means nothing to me. And I have to get stronger than Kakarot." Vegeta answered.

"Okay, sure. We all know that you're a tough guy, but you need to rest now" Bulma admitted. Yamcha was amazed at the scene played right before his eyes. Bulma somehow really cared about the Sayain Prince, she was looking at him with sorrow clouding her eyes.

"I take orders from no-one!" Vegeta insisted. He tried to get up, but failed and passed out.

* * *

Bulma decided it might be best if Yamcha went home again. She would need all her time looking after Vegeta. So she had sent him away.

They had put him in a bed in a separate room. Everything was bruised, except for his eyebrows. The poor thing, she really felt bad for him. All he wanted was to get stronger than Goku. It seemed to be his only goal in life, yet he could not seem to accomplish it.

She was about to walk out of the room when she heard him mutter something about Kakarot. He must be having a bad dream, she thought, as he gritted his teeth.

She decided to stay at his side for a while.

But soon she felt sleep come to her…

* * *

**Authors Note:** There it is!

Next chappie: Vegeta wakes up. Yamcha went home, he'll have to train at the gym again. What will he run into (or maybe… who)?

I won't be able to update for a while…aorund two weeks I think at least, because I'm going on holiday.

Anyway, please review!


	4. Satan City G&S

Chapter 4

As Vegeta woke up, he slowly turned his head. Hey! The woman was here. What is she doing here? Shouldn't she be with that ugly weakling of hers? He frowned.

Well, at least he wasn't a weakling. He was a sayain! The prince of a great warrior race. The best of them all, except for that little third-class-nitwit Kakarot.

He'd get back to training immediately. He had to get stronger than Kakarot. And all the time he spent in this bed, would cost him training time. He shouldn't have lost more then one day, at the most, he quickly counted, because of his fast sayain healing system.

He got up and splashed some water in his face. Then he headed for the backyard, where the GR was located.

Vegeta decided it would be best to start at a lower level. He turned the gravity on to 400gs. Still it exceeded human biological tolerance levels, as the machine said.

He started doing push-ups. He couldn't really concentrate well. Why had the woman been by his bedside? He wondered. Shouldn't she be laughing her head off about the mere fact that he wasn't able to beat a couple of stupid droids? Things she and her father had designed, just pieces of steel and he hadn't been up to them.

Instead, the woman had hurried over to him, her boyfriend scowling behind her. She had helped him up, and even tried to make him stop his training, so he could get better. It was weird. Why would she do such a thing?

Because she knew they needed him to beat the androids? No, that couldn't be it. After all, Kakarot would never let anything happen to his friends and he would be just as strong as Vegeta himself was. "Or stronger" a little voice in the back of his mind said.

NO! He wouldn't let that happen. He wouldn't train this hard and still be the weakest of the two, still be a failure of his destiny.

Suddenly Vegeta realised he wasn't doing push-ups anymore. Instead, he was hovering in the air, going back and forth around the room, just thinking.

Angry at himself for letting his concentration slip that much he started on a few combos, which he repeated 1000 times.

Yamcha threw a clean towel and a water bottle in his bag. He needed to start on training again, but man, was he angry!

That impossible prick of a Vegeta had hurt himself and suddenly, amazingly, Bulma had been all over him. He just had no words to describe it. And that wasn't even the worst. No, because Vegeta needed care, he had just been told off…like a bad dog. "Go home! I don't need you around right now!" Bulma had said. Well, she had said it a little differently, but this is what it sounded like to him. Puar had tried to cheer him up, but had miserably failed.

And so he'd better get his anger out in the good way; he'd take advantage of it and put his anger in every single punch, kick or blast! Although, he reminded himself, he should not throw blasts around in the gym, or in any public place for that matter.

He got the capsule, which contained his blue air car, and his drivers licence and went to the Satan City G&S. Such a ridiculously predictable name, Yamcha thought. 'Satan City gym and spa', anyone could have thought of that.

As soon as Yamcha arrived he encapsulated his air car again and went inside. Man, this place is huge, Yamcha thought as he looked at the ceiling of the four-floored building. He walked towards the front desk.

"Can I help you, sir?"

Yamcha looked dully at the remarkably beautiful woman in front of him. She had brown hair and amazing green eyes. Though they weren't totally green, it was more…seagreen? Something like that. She was short, about 5 foot high, but she was slim and she simply looked…healthy! Yes, that was the word. She was a little bit tanned too.

"Sir?"

"OOohh, r-righht!" Yamcha stuttered. "I would like to enter as a subscriber."

"Al right. We have three different cards. There's a bronze card, which allows you to train here once every week. There's a silver, which allows you to train here three times a week and you can use the sauna or the solarium once every week and there's a gold card, which grants you unlimited acces to all the facilities." She carefully explained. Yamcha herd only half of it. He shot a look at her chest. A little nametag read 'Samura'. That must be her name, Yamcha's brain managed to register.

"Every card gives you a 10 percent discount in all the shops at the second floor." Samura continued.

"I'll take it" Yamcha said. Samura looked at him questioningly. "You'll take which, exactly?" There were more? Yamcha was really confused now. "The last one," he said. He had to take something, since he didn't want to look foolish. "Excellent choice, sir"

She entered some of his personal details in the computer. A bright light suddenly flashed in Yamcha's face, who was still staring stupidly at Samura. Then a card, about the size of a small credit card, came out of a machine behind her, showing a picture of a Yamcha, who looked like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie-jar.

"Here you are. You can go with Neill now, he'll show you how everything works." Samura told him and she attended to her next costumer.

Yamcha followed a huge bodybuilder as meek as a lamb. The man pointed out the elevators, but took the stairs up and Yamcha followed. "These are the dressing rooms" Neill said. As the man spoke, Yamcha snapped out of it and came to his senses. He looked at the left door which contained a sign with a picture and it said 'males'. On the right door was a sign which contained a picture of a female and it said 'females'. Yamcha was about to take the right door when Neill tapped him on his shoulder. "Sir, wouldn't you rather take this door?"

"Oh, yes, of course" he answered, turning slightly pink for making such a stupid mistake.

Yamcha soon found out he had definitely taken the most expensive card, because he was treated like a V.I.P. Well, it didn't really matter anyway, he had more than enough money. The baseball players-job had paid really well.

The man took him on a tour of nearly an hour and by the time they were finished, Yamcha's anger had completely faded. Right then, all he felt was boredom. Like he cared whether there was an Jacuzzi or not? Maybe if it was a jacuzzi containing Samura he would have cared.

What was he thinking? He behaviour was quite insane. Like he'd never seen a beautiful woman before!

Neill had left him alone and Yamcha went downstairs (to the first floor) to change, this time taking the correct door immediately.

The woman kept filling his mind, his every thought. Maybe, in a way, the woman likes me, Vegeta thought. That could be the reason she wanted to help me. But that's ridiculous! I've ruined her planet, killed her friends and even now the only real reason I'm training is because I have to beat Kakarot. Surely she realises that! She does. He just knew that. She was after all, even for saiyan standards, a very clever woman. Hardly anyone on his home planet could compete to that. Yes, over the years the saiyans had grown smarter and smarter, but they still hired scientists from other planet to do the real thinking. Had planet Vegeta still been there, he would have taken the woman and her father to work in the royal labs without a thought. But there wasn't. His face angered. His race had been disgraced! A fighter's race and yet, this so-called fighter's race, had been wiped out with ease, as if it were an annoying mosquito buzzing at Frieza's ears. Now, he was the only one who could undo this disgrace, by not only beating Kakarot, but also by becoming the strongest in the universe. Than, the saiyan race, or what was left of it, would rule once again. People would fear his name and sayains could walk around with dignity and pride, their noses high in the air, just as it once had been. It was his destiny.

Vegeta was hovering circles in the air, when a monitor switched on, revealing the face of a young, beautiful, but very angry woman.

"Stop it, Vegeta, you are in no condition to be doing this right now" Bulma said. "I know you don't want to believe it, but you are made of flesh and blood."

Annoying woman was already keeping his mind from training, she wasn't going to keep his body from it too! Vegeta thought. "Stop pestering me woman, leave me alone!" he said. But as he said it, he lost his concentration again and thus he fell to the ground.

Bulma was really angry at him now. He's got guts, she thought. First he sneaks out on me, when I'm asleep. I only woke up to find the bed empty. I almost go crazy of worrying over the guy and that got even worse when I realized the lights in the GR were on. I'll show him.

For a minute Vegeta thought she'd actually do so. That would be good! If she finally left him to be he might have a chance at getting her out of his head. He did have to admit he liked to woman. She was smart and she had a fiery temper. In fact, she was a lot like he himself. He looked at her face again. She was beautiful to, he thought vaguely. He barely stopped himself from shaking his head. What the hell was he thinking. An earthling woman, for goodness sake! A weakling and not even a princess! He would never lower himself to even think of something like that. As a prince, he was supposed to get married to a first-class saiyan woman, at the least. Preferably the daughter of one of the lieutenants of the saiyan army. A strong, wealthy and wise woman. Maybe he should tell the woman just what he thought of her!

"Wait" he said "I have to tell you something."

But instead of just listening to him, like a good woman is supposed to do the woman started screaming something about wanting an apology. Anger rose in Vegeta's chest. Oh, the nerve of that woman! She was just as tempered as any saiyan woman, only she simply didn't have any strength to protect herself, let alone cause him pain. Her outbursts weren't based on anything! So, she wanted an apology, huh? Well, she wasn't getting any!

"LEAVE ME ALOOONE!" Vegeta roared.

Bulma, very offended and a little scared at his sudden outburst, looked in his eyes. He saw pain, but it was unlike the pain he'd seen in so many eyes of people, right before he killed them. This pain was caused by his words, not by his hands. The normally fiery woman turned off the monitor, with a disappointed look on her face.

As weeks passed Vegeta and Bulma avoided each other. Bulma figured he just wasn't worth her time. Vegeta, who didn't know that, couldn't get Bulma out of his mind. Why wasn't she looking for him anymore? Why wasn't she bothering him, trying to make him stop his training and heal.

After three weeks Vegeta was sure he had gotten her all wrong. She didn't like him the least bit, on the contrary! She had just been trying to keep him off his training, so he couldn't defeat Kakarot and destroy her planet and everyone on it.

Deep inside, Vegeta knew he wouldn't have done that. He would have spared this little mud ball. He didn't even know why. After he had trained here and defeated Kakarot, the planet had lost its usefulness. So why wouldn't he destroy it?

Vegeta told himself that it wasn't worth the effort. It would onlybe a waste of time.., right?


	5. Tennis classes

**Authors Note**: Hi, I'm back!

I've been stuck at the couch with the flu for over a week, so I really wasn't able to write a lot. That's why it took a while longer. Sorry about that.

Anyway, here's an extra long chapter to make it up to you guys.

**Please, do realize I want lots of reviews on this!** Thanks!

* * *

Chapter 5 

Yamcha walked slowly down the hallway towards the left wing of the gym. He passed a few bodybuilders, who were bragging about the amount of muscles they had. He smiled to himself, knowing he was a lot stronger than all of them together.

Right now he was heading towards the tennis courts. The usual fitness and bodybuilding machines had gotten him quite bored, he really needed a change. So he'd decided to take on a tennis course. He'd never played the game before and he knew hardly any of the rules, but he had always wanted to learn this.

The last few days that he'd been to the gym he hadn't seen Samura anywhere and he soon found himself wondering yet again why he cared to much for an almost complete stranger. Over the months his affection for her had started to grow, bringing with it that he usually made a fool out of himself whenever she was near…yes, even whenever only her name was mentioned.

He was starting to worry something had happened to her, or maybe she'd quit her job, but luckily he heard some of the employees talking about a new lesson she was working on. It seemed she had a special talent.

Yamcha walked out the doors and let the sunlight wash over his face. It was still quite cold outside, though, and he was glad he was wearing a reasonable amount of clothes.

He looked at his class. He shouldn't have done that. Because there she was…, Samura, wearing a white tennis skirt and a blue tennis tshirt, her hair in a ponytail and blue sport shoes on her tiny feet. She was holding a bright green tennis racket of, as far as Yamcha could tell, a very good brand. She looked fantastic. Like she'd stepped right out of a commercial.

She saw him standing there and smiled at him. Yamcha felt as if his legs had been turned into chocolate. He managed to throw her a shaky smile and put himself together to walk over to the rest of the class. So, Samura was in his class too?

After about ten minutes he knew he had made another mistake. Everybody seemed to know Samura, yet he didn't. He wondered whether or not this was the first lesson, had he already missed one? Perhaps, but one thing was for sure, Samura was the teacher.

Why did he have to take a tennis course again? Yamcha wondered. Why didn't he just stick with his usual routine? He didn't get much time to ponder over this, as Samura started her class.

"Hi and welcome everybody to this tennis course. I noticed many of you already know me, but for those who do not: My name is Samura Wyatt. I'll be teaching you the basic principles of tennis the next seven weeks."

She received a few nods from her audience, to acknowledge that they were listening to her and that they had understood.

"Since you're all beginners, I'll start by teaching you how to hold your racket. I need a volunteer, please?" She waited a while until a young woman raised her hand. "Yes, you! Come on over here." Samura proceeded by showing the class how to hold the racket and how to swing it exactly.

"All right! Let's practice this for a while. Divide in pairs and pass the ball to your partner, only using the forehand."

Everybody started looking for a partner. Yamcha ended up with a blonde haired guy called Philip, who had already played tennis once before on a campsite. "But that doesn't really count" he explained, "because we weren't being serious at all".

Samura walked between the pairs, every now and then she'd adjust somebody's stance or give another good example. She spotted two guys who were really making a mess of things.

"Remember, " she said "you do not have to make it hard for your partner just yet. Please just pass the ball to practice the forehand." The class went on, and Yamcha noticed that he wasn't even doing so bad for a beginner. He really liked tennis a lot.

When class ended, Yamcha let himself be guided by the stream of people, who were all going towards the dressing rooms. He overheard some people whisper exitedly. "I really didn't expect them to give us HER!" "Yeah, I know. Amazing, isn't it?" "She's like _the world's best female player_ right now! She's so good, and still she's so very friendly. She wasn't arrogant at all." "No! My Mum also said that they say she'd so arrogant, but none of those rumours are true. I liked her a lot!"

It took a while before Yamcha drew the conclusion that Samura was quite a famous tennis player. He'd missed all that, because he'd been to busy training for the androids. Of course! That's why everybody already knew her…they'd seen her on the tv! That's why her face looked so familiar…

The next two weeks passed very quickly. He loved Samura's classes! He really was a natural at tennis, according to Samura. She gave him a lot of compliments, far more than any of the other students, but she really did mean it. The others students weren't jealous of Yamcha, they could see he was good at it themselves. In fact, they gave him compliments, too! They just didn't understand how he could have such amazing speed!

Yamcha spent all of his time fantasizing about the next class. Sometimes he was extra slow at the end of class, so he could have a few more words with Samura. Until he decided he had had enough. He was acting weird, like he hadn't done in years. Not since he first met Bulma. Back then, he had been really shy over girls, they had approximately been 'his worst fear'. But as he started to like Bulma some of the shyness had went away, until all he wanted was to be with her all day. The feeling had already faded a lot. He still liked Bulma, of course he did!

But now he realised that he didn't _love_ Bulma anymore. He had fallen in love with somebody else. He had fallen in love with Samura.

Still he didn't want to break it up just yet. Maybe he was wrong! Had he broken up with Bulma by then, he would have thrown away a beautiful relationship, which still had a lot of potential. Right?

And so he scraped together all his courage…and asked Samura out.

* * *

Bulma let out a deep sigh, while gazing up at the sky. A flock of birds just crossed the mental square she'd been keeping an eye on. Yes, this was it, this was _life_. She could feel it in every fibre of her body, it shook her insides in pure happiness.

Spring. It was definitely her most favourite time of the year, where so many others preferred summer. The sun shone down at her, but it wasn't too hot. The grass of her front lawn was still dewed, which made it seem more green, more fresh. Birds were chirping in the trees and stealing the berries of her mother's plants, while the males were already looking for small branches, clay, feathers and other things they could use to build a nest. Next step was to find a willing female.

She liked birds. She knew why, too. Once a bird couple is 'together' they never split up again, they never find another mate. It was a lifelong commitment. Like it should be.

She started humming a tune.

A lifelong commitment…she wondered whether she would be able to make that. Yamcha and she had been talking about getting married before, but usually all their plans fell apart as soon as she caught him cheating again. But she always took him back. She didn't even know why! In this matter, she was pathetic. She deserved better, her parents had said that so many times. But, she would always fall in love with Yamcha again and they would accept it.

Well, she was still young enough, she was only twenty-seven. And Yamcha had been true to her for an incredibly long time now.

Still, somewhere deep inside Bulma knew. She knew that she and Yamcha were never going to get married. In a way, she had always known that, but it wasn't until now that she realized it.

Well, she hardly saw Yamcha anyway. Maybe she should phone him…they should definitely go on a date some time soon, if they wanted to keep up their relationship.

Bulma turned her attention back to the birds. A big sparrow flew right over her head. Longingly she gazed at the sky once more. "What I would give to be able to do that" she sighed out loud.

"Do what?" a voice behind her said.

She swung around, to look into the eyes of a certain Sayain. "Oh, Vegeta. I thought I was alone!"

Vegeta looked at her. She didn't answer his question, but he wasn't going to repeat it.

Bulma was shocked to see him here. He hadn't been out of his GR for over a month. She wondered how far he had gotten. Surely he did _not_ already surpass 450 times gravity? No, she refused to believe that. Yet, she eyed him suspiciously. "Fly."

Vegeta, who had forgotten about his earlier question, said: "I take orders from no-one! I told you that multiple times already!"

"No, silly" Bulma said, who could hardly keep her laughter. "You asked me what I wished to be able to do. Well, I just answered you"

He looked at her, his face expressionless. "Fly." Bulma said again, thinking he didn't hear her the first time. "I heard you!" Vegeta shot at her. He was lost in thoughts now. So this Bulma wanted to fly? A woman? He was amazed. Why would she want that? She didn't need to be able to fly. After all, didn't she have a mate to protect her? Yes, but her mate was never around and Vegeta doubted he would notice if something bad was happening to his woman. Earthlings didn't seem to have the same kind of bond Sayains had. But then, maybe they only had such a bond after they had had a marrig, or no…a marriage they called it. That could be it. Or not. He simply didn't know and it frustrated him to no end. Still he was way to proud to ask the woman and it wasn't any of his business. He decided he wouldn't waste his time on it any longer.

"I need a restock" he informed her.

"Oh. Well, go to my Mum, she'll probably be glad to help you with it." Vegeta really wasn't looking forward to listening to the awful voice of the blonde. "You do it" he demanded.

"What? No! I'm busy" Bulma answered.

"Busy? With _what_, exactly?

Bulma turned a little pink. Watching birds could hardly count as being busy. "I-I'm working on a project."

Vegeta didn't answer, he just stood there, arms crossed, waiting for a better explanation. "A nature project. I might use some of these birds nestbuilding techniques for a special new invention I'm making." She didn't sound very convincing and she knew it.

Vegeta played along. "Fine. I'll wait right here then."

Shit, this wasn't supposed to happen. With Vegeta lurking at her sides she couldn't concentrate on the birds anyway. Well, then she'd just have to tear herself away from this wonderful place then and start fixing him a stock.

With one last look over her shoulder she went to the house. "All right, I was already finished, anyway."

* * *

Samura closed the door of the female dressing room behind her and walked towards her last class of tennis. The beginner class. It was definitely her favourite, not the least because of the cute guy that was in it.

A couple of months ago he had showed up at the gym and entered as a subscriber. She had immediately noticed him. Such a cute guy and he looked strong. In the time that followed she'd not once seen him with company, he was always alone. Remarkable, because most people did sports for fun, with a friend or with their lover. But not him.

Yamcha, his name was. She still remembered well how she had entered his name in the computer. He was rich too, because he had taken the most expensive card, almost without thinking.

Then the regionals had been up, and her trainer hadn't allowed her to lose time on working. She had explained this to her employer and gotten a few weeks of. The Satan City Gym and Spa was the only place that really understood what it was like to do topsports. As the professional tennis player she was, that was one of the many reasons she loved working there.

Her trainer had soon noticed her lack of concentration. He had yelled at her and talked to her and tried to get it out of her and finally she had told him. Told him of her silly crush on a customer of the gym. She'd only spoken to Yamcha once, for goodness sake.

Her trainer told her that she had to get him out of her mind, if she ever wanted to make it to Wimbledon. Then he made her do a lot of meditation and training, so much that she was at a point where she was just to tired to think of Yamcha. But he would still, somehow, show up in her dreams.

Samura entered the tournament in pretty good shape. She ended up second, earning herself a place in nationals. She knew she could have done better. If she had really set her mind to it, she could have defeated Simone Leeres and become first. But she couldn't really get Yamcha out.

When she came back, a big surprise awaited her. Yamcha was actually in her new beginner tennis class. If she'd known, she would have put on make-up. She watched him play and concluded that he was truly very good at tennis, considering he was a beginner. He was really fast and could hit the ball with a very precise amount of power.

As the weeks passed they started shooting each other quick looks and caught the other one looking too. They would always turn pink, look the other way again and go on with class. She wondered whether she was the only one who noticed this. Maybe she'd just imagined things.

But no, she hadn't. Soon Yamcha started to stay and chat with her after class. In the fourth week, they had had a sport soda together in the canteen. It had been really pleasant. They had chatted about her proffesion and she discovered he had played professional baseball too. He knew very well what she was talking about. Not having a lot of time for other things, always trainer, angry coaches, it was all so familiar to him. They really had a lot in common.

And now, in the seventh and final week of tennis class, on a beautiful day in June she was humming a tune.

"All right. Everybody has been improving greatly over the last few weeks. I'm so proud of you guys!" she beamed. All the students cheered.

"Because you have become so good, I thought it might be fun to have a little tournament. I already drew lots and here's the game scheme. Go check out who you're up against first!"

Everybody gathered around the game scheme and the first matches commenced.

Yamcha's first match was against Yumi, an extraordinary raven haired girl. He won the match easily. Next match was against Karl, a big bloke who had somehow managed to get through his first match also, much to everyone's amazement. Karl was the kind of guy to put so much force in each hit, that the ball would usually hit the ground outside the field. "Out!" Samura's voice sounded, time after time. Yamcha won this match to. With a grin on his face he realized he had made it to the finals. He was up against Philip, the blond guy he usually practiced with. They had become rather good friends.

It was an exiting match, they were pretty even. Samura found herself cheering on Yamcha. Goodness! She was the teacher, she shouldn't be cheering on anybody! She was the referee too, and she should definitely not prefer one person over the other (A/N what is it called?)

So, to make it seem even, she now cheered on Philip too.

When Yamcha placed his final point, she couldn't help herself. She ran at him, screaming "You won! You won!" and she threw her arms around his neck.

Yamcha didn't know what to do. He was smiling broadly at her and she finally let go. "Very good. Now, here's you're prize" she said, and she gave him a nice trophy that said '1st place'. On the bottom it read: Beginner tournament, 19th June 2003.

Yamcha was happy. This was the day. As the other students started to leave Yamcha dawdled a little. Shyly he walked up to her.

"Oh, Yamcha…sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable and I…"

"That's okay!" Yamcha cut her off. "You see, I was just wondering…er…I was wondering if you would, perhaps, like to go out on a date with me?" he asked shyly.

Samura could hardly contain her excitement. "Sure. That would be fun."

"Would tonight be okay? We could see a movie…"

"Pick me up at eight?"

"Deal"

Yamcha did a little victory dance. That went a lot better than he could've imagined! He felt like a stupid crazy-in-love teenager! He pulled himself together and walked to the male dressing rooms, changed and went home to pick out a suitable outfit.

* * *

**Authors Note:** That's it again…please review!

Then something **very important**: I've heard about the concept of a beta-reader and I like it. I was wondering if there are any volunteers? Please say so in your review and I'll answer you asap.

I've got some basic ideas of how to continue this story, but it's really hard to keep it this 'good'. Now that I've passed the dialogues that are shown in the tv-show I'm getting to the part where I have to make up everything myself, and that takes a lot of time. I've also missed a couple of classes, because of the flu, so it might take a while before I update. Please don't kill me. Thank you.


	6. Twentythree roses

**Authors Note:** Hey Everybody! I've been a bit busy lately, so sorry for the hold-up, but here's another chapter for you guys. Thanks for all the great reviews I've had so far, they really keep me going. (I'd still like lots more though )

Pearl3: Thanks for offering to beta-read. I'll send next chapter to your email-adress if that's okay. (if it's not please say so in a review).

All right, that's about it. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 6 

"Nooo ooneee, noooo ooneee" Samura sang out loud, while standing in front of her oversized closet to find herself the perfect thing to wear. She wasn't the kind of girl to go shopping for every single date she had, like many of the brainless woman on this planet usually did. She was just a big fan of new and unique combinations of 'old' clothes. "Don't wannaa beeee, Noooo Oooone, but meeeeeeeeheeeee" She was probably the worst singer in this world, but she couldn't care less. Singing made her happy. And happy she was!

She still couldn't quite believe how easy it went. One minute she was still trying to find the guts to go ahead and ask him out, then the next moment, she was already hopping into her aircar and driving home way too fast. She was lucky she didn't get a speeding ticket.

Calm down, girl! It's not like it's a big deal, Samura told herself, it's just a date, _just a date!_

The shower she just had had taken her over half an hour, even though she hardly ever showered that long. She threw off her bathrobe and put on a green T-shirt, which matched her eyes perfectly. Then she held out a brown, quite fancy skirt, which she tossed aside immediately. No, wearing a skirt to the movies would just be too much. She didn't want to look desperate by overdoing it. But then, just jeans were a bit too basic. After all she did want him to see she had put some effort in her looks. Okay, a _lot_ of effort.

She rummaged through her closet some more and finally decided on an off-white pair of trousers. She put on some brown sandals, which had a very small heel, so she could actually walk on them feeling secure. That way, she didn't need to keep herself from loosing her balance all the time and that really prevented some embarrassing situations.

A silver necklace, green ring and some silver/green bracelets were still somewhere in a drawer of her sideboard. She looked them up and put them on.

For her makeup she used some eye cream and put eye shadow on top of that, to gain a long lasting effect. She used some brown mascara, which she preferred over black, because it looked more natural with her brown hair and to finish she put on some peach-flavoured lipgloss. She tossed the lipgloss in her handbag, together with some tampons – you never know – her wallet, coupons for half-price entry to the cinema she found last week and her mobile phone.

"There! I'm all ready to go!" She yelled excitedly. She grabbed her coat from the hatstand and ran out the door. She was halfway the porch when she realised they had agreed he would pick her up…

* * *

The phone rang. Bulma came storming out of the toilet trying to be in time to pick up, but she was too late. She checked the number on the call line identity (A/N I looked this up, I'm not sure if you know what I mean or whether this is a correct sentence or not.) and saw it was Yamcha's cell phone which he only used in his aircar.

Gosh! He hasn't called me in ages! I wonder what he wants.

She dialled his number and held the phone to her head. "Hey Bulma!" Yamcha answered, obviously recognizing her number. "Hi! You just tried to phone me, so what's up?"

A lot was 'up', Yamcha thought. He'd been thinking about what to do for the last week, before asking Samura out. He realised that, for the first time in his life, he'd been the one to ask her out, while usually it was the other way around. When he was still playing baseball he'd had hundreds of fans, including a lot of cute girls, and every now and then he would go off on the sly. Well, all in all, he'd done it about twenty-three times, so you couldn't really say 'every now and then', but Bulma only knew about six of them. Everyone of those times, she had broken up with him for doing so and after a few weeks she'd taken him back. He had become used to this, until in the end he had actually expected her to take him back, time and time again. Well, he might have had a lot of girls, but they were all just one night stands. He never slept with one of those same girls more than once. That was exactly why he was phoning Bulma.

"I was wondering, would it be okay if I stopped by?" Yamcha asked.

"Sure!" Bulma said happily. "I'm all alone at home anyway. Well, Vegeta is somewhere locked in his gravity room, but that doesn't really count, does it? She laughed.

A little pin of steel was pricked in Yamcha's heart at the mention of Vegeta's name, but he ignored it. "All right, I'll be right over".

As Yamcha pressed his finger on the doorbell he sighed out loud. The garden still looked the same as always, full of blue pansies and yellow daffodils. He glanced over his shoulder to where the GR was still standing. He could see the lights were on, but then he hadn't really expected it to be any different. He's probably gaining strength every single minute, while I sit around, play a little tennis and basically do nothing to save my own butt, Yamcha thought. He was truly ashamed of himself, but on the other hand, he knew that in the end _he_ probably wasn't going to be 'big hero' anyway. He couldn't compete with Goku, Vegeta or even Gohan anymore. Piccolo was the only one of the original Z gang who could keep up with the Sayains.

As he stood there he mused about all those girls he had. There was Naomi, the first girl he'd slept with when he was dating Bulma. He was 18 at the time and very impatient to find out. There was Luana, Marilyn, Georgia, Frances, Ruth, Lisa and even Marron, Krillin's former girlfriend. He ran into her when he was having a 'guys night out' with the rest of the baseball team. They started talking and they really did seem to get along well. He'd taken her back to his apartment. But, all this was after Krillin and her had broken up, he'd never ever sleep with somebody else's girlfriend. No, in his opinion it was just not done to betray a friend like that.

And there were a few girls he didn't even remember the names off. But all these girls hadn't meant much to Yamcha. This time though, it was different. He really did care about Samura and he didn't think it necessary to sleep with her on the first date, which was very different indeed. With Samura, things were serious.

Bulma opened the door, a beautiful smile lighting up her face. Surprisingly, he didn't feel the familiar butterflies in his stomach. That's when he knew for sure he was doing the right thing.

"Hey" he said.

"Come on in" Bulma said as she walked away towards the living room. Yamcha closed the front door behind him and went after her. He flopped down in his favourite chair as he pulled out the roses he brought from behind his back.

Bulma gasped. She had never once in her life had such beautiful roses from Yamcha. She wondered what the occasion was and at the same time knew something was wrong.

"I've come to apologize" Yamcha whispered. Bulma gave him a questioning look. "Ever since we were sixteen and started dating I've been cheating." Yamcha continued. Bulma knew he'd been cheating, so she wasn't that surprised. "To be exact, I've cheated on you twenty-three times." Yamcha spilled out, knowing Bulma would be shocked. Bulma opened her mouth to say something, but changed her mind and closed it again. "So, I brought you twenty-three roses. One for each time I was unfaithful to you, to symbolize that I'm sorry for every single time I broke your heart." Bulma gasped. She had never expected Yamcha to do something this thoughtful, this amazingly sweet. But it was sweet in a bitter way. Yamcha gave her the roses.

"And I also came here to tell you that…well… it might be better if….if we broke up." Yamcha stuttered. Bulma looked at him. There was a strange look on his face, one that she'd never seen before. She knew that he wasn't going to change his mind and now that she thought about it, he might be right. They hadn't seen each other for months, yet she had hardly missed him. Instead she had spent her time reading and inventing new things to improve Vegeta's training program. She thought of it as a challenge to prove to him she could make his equipment better and better. She liked to prove him that even though she wasn't physically strong, she had been one of the most needed people in the Z gang, because of her genius inventions. After all, where would they have been now if they hadn't had her dragonball radar? Probably in a rubber boat, out on the open water, without paddles. She nodded in agreement "Maybe you're right".

"I think we both need a fresh start" Yamcha continued.

But Bulma wasn't stupid. "What's her name?" she asked Yamcha. I should've known I wasn't going to get away with this that easily, Yamcha thought. Oh, heck, I might as well just tell her then.

"Samura."

Bulma just knew she had heard that name somewhere before, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. "I see" she answered. "Well, thanks for the flowers." She managed a fake smile. Even though she knew Yamcha and her were never going to be, after all this time it was bound to hurt a little. This wasn't just any kind of break-up, this was forever, permanent, never together again. Yamcha was now breaking up with her, while before it had always been Bulma who had broken up with Yamcha. Never the other way around. Ouch.

Half an hour later she had waved goodbye to Yamcha, wished him good luck, a smile still plastered on her face. She put the flowers in a vase and set it on the coffee table. And all she could think was: Ouch.

* * *

Yamcha felt relieved, a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Now he could start a relationship with Samura without having to feel guilty.

He drove home, showered and changed in jeans and a blue shirt that said: Are you ready to rock and roll? It was his favourite shirt. He picked up Samura and let her drive him to the cinema.

"Which movie do you want to go to? He asked her on the way there. All the while he was thinking how gorgeous she looked. "Oh, I don't know" Samura said nervously. "I found some free-entry coupons, though. I thought we could use those."

"Great. I was thinking "Living with it" would be nice."

"Oh, that's a comedy right? About that boy who inherits a small farm, but has to live with his aunt that works as a showgirl. They say it's hilarious." Samura replied.

"Yeah, that the one."

"Sounds good to me"

Samura parked the car next between the cinema and a huge Irish pub. She jumped out of the car and locked the doors. Yamcha doubted whether he would dare to grab her hand. Should he? Maybe she even expected him to do that. But it would look rather foolish if she didn't. But he didn't need to worry, because she pulled him with her "Come on, we've got to hurry a little or we'll miss half of the movie". She didn't let go of his hand.

They rushed towards the front desk and bought two tickets. Then they got themselves some Chococrunchies, which were Samura's favourite. Funny how they both hated popcorn, Yamcha thought. He looked at the tickets. Their places were all the way in the back, seats 12 and 13, near the center of the row. Perfect. He guided her towards their seats and helped her take off her coat. They sat down and watched the endless stream of commercials that always come before any movie.

Two hours later they came out, tears of laughter still streaming down their faces. Samura took a deep sigh. "Oh, that sure was funny. Ridiculous how that pig chased her!" "And I truly couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it was that Jon who was in that dating agency" Yamcha still sniggered. They walked towards the car and Yamcha drove to Samura's house. They both got out and walked to the front door.

"So…" Samura said. "I had a great time"

"Me too"

Things went silent.

They looked at each other. "Do you want to come in?" Samura asked. Yamcha smiled. He knew exactly what would happen if he accepted that offer. He also knew how much he wanted that. But then, he also knew that he would have done that with every other girl. But Samura meant something to him, she was different.

And so, he smiled, leaned in and kissed her lightly on her cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow".

* * *

**Authors Note: **Aaawww, ain't Yamcha the sweetest? Well, they've finally broken up, so from now on there's probably gonna be a lot more Bulma/ Vegeta. **Fasten your seatbelts, 'cause you're in for a looongg ride!**

Everybody who wants me to continue on the Samura/Yamcha story, please demand I do in your review, and I might throw in some chapters about them.


	7. A voice within

**Authors Note:** Allright, I'm back with another chappie for you guys. I realise I haven't written anything for months, but my boyfriend broke up with me and I truly wasn't in the mood the write a love story after that, so I kind of put the whole thing on hold.

However, I'd almost finished this chapter already, and it would be a shame not to post it. This is now finally starting to become a V/B get-together. FINALLY. I know.

**For all reviewers of the last chapter:** I've decided to stop the Yamcha/Samura thing, though they'll probably come back in the end. ;-) winks

* * *

Chapter 7

It wasn't until a month later that Bulma found out just who Samura was. On a hot morning in July, she walked out of her room, wearing a army-coloured cargo pants and a white tshirt. She walked trough the hallway towards the stairs and admired the paintings on the walls. Although the walls were just plain white and the floor was a dark colour of wood, she still liked the hall, because of them. Her Mum had always liked art. She painted a lot herself and she actually had had many offers of making her profession of it, but she didn't exactly need the money. On top of that, she wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of having to finish sixteen more paintings before the end of the week. The mere fact that she would '_have to'_ paint, spoiled her creativity and made it become a boring job. She only painted when she felt like it and whatever she felt like painting, but usually it were flowers. Once or twice a week she'd drag an easel outside to the garden and painted some of 'her babies'. They always called her flowers babies, because Bunny took care of them as if they were her own children.

Yes, Bulma had always liked this hallway. She happily jumped of the last three steps of the staircase and turned to the kitchen, which screamed white and spotless at her. She grabbed an apple of the fruit bowl. Taking a big bite, she walked over to her Mum, who was sitting on the green couch, watching tennis.

"Who's winning?" Bulma asked.

"If you ask me that blonde's going to win" Bunny said. "I think that Wyatt girl looks tired, she isn't going to make it until the end of the game"

Bulma watched a while and decided her mum was probably right. Even though everybody seemed to think of her mother as quite the not-so-smart person, she truly wasn't stupid. She just never bothered herself by worrying over things she couldn't change anyway, thus leading a practically care-free life.

"Out!" a shout came from the television. Immediately a chain-reaction of cheers went through the crowd. The blonde girl threw her hands in the air in happiness. "And Simone Leeres wins! Cameras rushed over to the girl who was still screaming things at the audience, cheering at her win. Then a cameraman noticed the girl who had almost won the match and headed over to her.

Samura Wyatt, the favourite for these championships, didn't seem to be in good enough shape to beat Simone Leeres, his presenter said to the camera. "Samura, how do you feel?" Just when Samura opened her mouth to reply, it hit Bulma fullforce.

NO! He couldn't mean…Samura Wyatt? There must be another…although…it's not a very common name…thoughts were racing through Bulma's head until she finally concluded what her heart already knew. Yamcha _did_ mean Samura Wyatt.

Wow! But….isn't she way to young? Yes, she's only…_twenty-one_! He left me for a _younger girl!_ Which means that it is true! HE DOES THINK I'M OLD!

An incredible rage took possession of Bulma and she stalked out of the living room and went through the swinging doors outside. "AAAAAAAAAAAARGHH!" She yelled in utter frustration, swinging her arm back and throwing what was left of her apple away with all the strength she had in her. In her anger, she only vaguely heard the sound of shattering glass. She stood there like a statue, breathing fast and heavily. All she could think of was Yamcha and the fact that he just left her for a _younger girl_! No, for a _much_ younger girl! UGH! Well, she'd deal with this! She was a big (she couldn't help but think: and old) girl. She sighed and turned on her heel.

She was just about to stalk back inside, when she saw a very pissed Vegeta stamping towards her. This got her attention and she was about to ask what was wrong when she noticed the half-eaten apple he was holding…

* * *

Vegeta had definitely heard Bulma's roar. He had caught whatever it was that she threw through the window of the GR and looked at it thoughtfully. A core? Is she trying to make a mockery out of me by throwing food at me? he'd wondered, while stepping out of the GR. If she was, he'd make her pay this instant, he had thought.

But when he'd come outside his mind registered something odd. Bulma was almost 80 yards away. So how could she possibly have thrown the core so far? And more oddly, how did she manage to hit the window in the exact spot were it would break?

Vegeta'd smirked. This woman was really something.

He stopped in front of her and showed her the apple.

"Explain." He demanded.

The sight of this proud man holding the remains of her apple made the corners of Bulma's mouth go slightly up.

"I don't have to explain anything to you," she said, while turning around to walk away.

What? Vegeta thought, she refused? How _dare_ she? If he demanded explanation, he would _get_ it! "Explain _now!_" he roared.

"No." she said, turning back. His dark eyebrows were furrowed with anger. Bulma gave him a haughty look, challenging him.

Suddenly Vegeta spun around, moved his arm up, and threw the core right over the large birch trees at the end of the garden. Bulma watched his muscles tense and relax again, as he did so. "Yamcha broke up with me" she blurted out.

He looked at her with a little interest. "I needed to let off some steam" she explained. She looked into his eyes and felt a small twist in her stomach. Hormones, obviously, Bulma thought. After such a revelation her body was likely to produce them. She could still feel adrenaline rushing through her veins.

She hadn't even told Vegeta the real reason, she thought, getting angry again. Well she'd prove Yamcha that she was definitely still attractive. Somehow, she'd prove him.

Vegeta turned on his heel and went back to training. As he threw blasts at the bots Bulma had designed for him he wondered once again about the human customs.

It was long since clear to him that the moron and Bulma did not have a bond like a sayains bond, nor were they 'married' like Kakarot. Although he still hadn't quite figured out whether that would be the same kind of thing.

If the moron was able to leave her, go back to her, leave her and go back to her again, then what they had wasn't there. In a Sayains eyes, Bulma would be nothing but a pleasure-slave.

But he knew that Bulma was too strong-willed to be considered such.

But to them, it obviously meant more, seeing how Bulma was actually sad that the idiot had broken up with her, even though she deserved so much better. Wait, did he really just think that? He shrugged. So this type of thing was somewhere in between, meaning that he had been right after all, Yamcha wasn't her lifetime mate.

He had heard them talking about getting married, but they never did. It wasn't right, but somewhere in the back of his mind he was glad they didn't. That idiot didn't deserve Bulma. She was incredibly smart, where he was considered quite stupid, even amongst humans. She was hot-tempered and quite a little daredevil. Even when she knew things were way too dangerous, she'd show up out of nosiness.

At first, he'd considered her stupid for doing so, but then he recognized the same need for adventure as he himself had always had. She was fiery, liked a challenge and she was gorgeous.

The moron, on the other hand, had been yelping he couldn't take it, that their opponents were far too strong. Multiple times he had almost left, because he was simply too much of a sissy. They just weren't right for each other! She deserves someone who's about as smart as she is, someone who's not scared of a challenge, better yet, someone who likes a challenge! She needs someone who can protect her, not that weakling. Someone who can measure up to her.

She deserves someone…someone like……oh, I don't know! And I don't know why I even _care_ either! I shouldn't even be thinking about this! He shook his head and focused on his training again.

* * *

As weeks passed something inside Vegeta started to stir. He hadn't the faintest idea what it was, because he never felt something like this before. It felt like a weight had somehow been lifted off his shoulders. Where others were being closed, new doors were opened and he used this fresh feeling to change his ways of training, trying to get a better chance at finally becoming a Super Sayain. He now trained most of the night and rested in the early hours of the morning.

This caused him to run into the other members of the household a lot more, since he now had his breakfast at the same time as they had theirs.

One morning he awoke a little earlier than he usually did. He swung his legs over one side of the bed and threw open the window. He flew out, not taking a shower, but going for a swim in a lake nearby instead.

The grass had been mown a few hours before, he could smell. He loved that smell, since the first time he'd smelled it here on earth. On planet Vegeta there was hardly any vegetation, only some trees much like the trees on earth called cactuses, only they didn't sting as much.

Still he had visited many planet, but nowhere on all his travels had a planet smelled like this, so…alive.

On the horizon the skyline was tracing the mountains, pointy rocks which from way out here seemed blue, but in fact were brown, Vegeta knew.

He landed in the sand a couple of miles further and threw his clothes in the hole of a strange u-shaped tree. He dove in.

* * *

Bulma was in the livingroom on their large white couch, her legs pulled up underneath her in a comfy position, staring into nothingness over the rim of her teacup.

She took a small sip and her mind wandered to Yamcha. If she really was going to show him she wasn't old, she needed a plan. Okay… a plan! A plan, a plan, a plan...

While she was trying to come up with something she heard the soft sound of padding footsteps come towards her. Vegeta entered the room and was about to continue straight for the kitchen when he saw Bulma, lost in thought on the couch. He watched her with a small smile, she was clearly cooking up something, he could almost see the wheels turning in her head.

Bulma looked up, disturbed by the sound of dripping water. She must've forgotten to properly close the water tap. She searched for the direction of the sound and found Vegeta's face. The sound was coming from him? She vaguely wondered, when she noticed the drops on his broad, naked chest and the puddle around his feet. Why! The nerve of that man, standing there dripping all over her living room! "Ever heard of the word 'towel'?" She spat.

"Don't need one", he said and the next moment she saw his body glow a bright yellow light and the puddle, which she had been staring at, was gone. Her eyes moved over his chest. She looked at his face and then back down again and felt her stomach twinge a little. Her mind registered that the drops were indeed gone, which was what she was checking for, right?

--No you weren't-- a little voice in her head said --you know perfectly well they were gone when you checked the first time--. Bulma felt her face going a deep shade of pink.

Don't be ridiculous, why else would I look at it? she told her own brain.

--You know why --

I've seen so many men half naked, then what's so different about Vegeta?

She looked at him again and he turned, flexing his muscles as he decided to finally head for the kitchen.

--See?—the little triumphant voice said.

* * *

**Authors Note:** I don't know when I'll post the next chapter, it might take a while, the wheather is way to good to be sitting inside typing stories... ;-) Everybody enjoy the summer holidays! 


	8. Midnight rendezvous

**Authors Note:** Hi eyerbody, finally I have a new looonggg chapter up! It took me a great deal of hard work to get it finished, it's hard to build tension. Let me know how I did please!

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 8 

After that day, Vegeta caught himself watching Bulma more often. The way she'd go about the house had changed somewhat, she seemed more dreamy, lost in thought. At least she wasn't her usual sharp and punctual self. On top of that he had definitely picked up on the way she had looked at him and he couldn't get it off his mind.

About a week later he was getting more frustrated, because he still hadn't reached the level of Super Sayain and though he still had time, he'd never been a man of patience. He trained in his GR every single day for hours and hours, and he did get much stronger, but he just couldn't reach it. He lost concentration too many times in his opinion.

This time he was staring at the glowing red inside of the GR. It reminded him of the peculiar drawings humans made to use as a map. They tried to draw this planet, which was of course round like a ball (and NOT round like a pancake, as he'd heard some very stupid humans say to each other once) on a flat piece of paper. To show that is was round, they drew lines called meridians and parallels over it, very similar to the outline of the squares of which this GR was built.

He shook his head, suddenly realising he'd lost concentration _again_. And it was getting worse and worse! At first it had just been Kakarot and how to beat him, the usual really. Then, that woman and her idiot friend had started to invade his mind, then he would think about food, Bulma, sleep and Bulma's idiot and how they had broken up and why, about marriage and what it meant, but _this _was absolutely insane. Now he was letting _human maps_ interfere with his training.

He could almost hear his father roar at him again. "FOCUS, Vegeta! You'll never get there if you don't learn how to focus! – But all the others only train for four hours! – But not YOU. You're the Prince. You have to be better than all of them! You have to _be_ the best and _stay_ the best! It is your _faith_ and your duty as a Prince of the Sayains. Do not walk away from your heritage."

He'd known that his father was right, and ever since then he hadn't complained anymore. When his planet was blown up, he'd sworn he would get his revenge, he would make his father proud. He would become the Legendary.

He threw a punch in the air, followed by a series of various kicks. He turned up the gravity and looked at the screen as the computer said: _Initiating gravity 400 times planet's normal gravity_. The screen he'd destroyed so that Bulma couldn't bother him anymore. Not that it really mattered. She bothered him anyway by filling his head with images and thoughts of her…

The memory of Bulma looking at him, while he was still wet from that swim he'd had a few weeks ago popped in his head again. It had been rather strange. She had acted like she was angry, but she absolutely hadn't _looked_ like she was angry, which was, especially in Sayain eyes, an odd combination. Instead, she'd looked almost appreciative. But that was ridiculous, he was sure she didn't appreciate him making her living room wet, since he knew she hated to clean. Then what had it been. It had been appreciative, his mind told him, as he reviewed the scene over and over again, like a silent movie.

Could she somehow be attracted to him? However he discarded that idea en began to believe he'd imagined things, because he never caught her looking again. Though somehow that thought irritated him al little. After all, why wouldn't she be attracted to him? On his planet, it would have been an honour to be with the prince. And that was exactly it, on _his_ planet, it would, but here on Earth..

They just wouldn't pay him any proper respect, all of them, not just Bulma. Well, at least all of the others except for Goku were, in a way, showing him respect by fearing him. But Bulma didn't seem to be afraid at all. Vegeta knew it might be because she was used to being around people who could squash her like a bug, but still managed to make them fear her, not the other way around. He'd had several good laughs at the Z warriors faces when she was throwing a fit about something again. But that had been a while ago now, seeing how everyone was too busy training to visit her very often. Although Bulma certainly hadn't been calm lately, she was out of the house more often than she was in it, and considering the amazing amount of time these humans spent on sleeping, that was saying something. Weird.

* * *

Bulma was busy. She finally had a plan that would serve Yamcha right and with the simpleness of it she amazed herself. She just needed to start dating, preferrably in places where Yamcha and his new girl would be dating too. That way, Yamcha would see she still had it all, while at the same time he would get jealous and want her back. It was perfect. 

She was lying on her bed with a list of long lost telephone numbers. Now to find a suitable guy. Somebody young and handsome, the rest didn't really matter. Bulma decided to phone an old school friend, Kieran.

After some catching up on the phone Kieran informed her he was married.

Jim then?

Has a girlfriend.

Milo?

Gay.

Brad?

Just getting a divorce.

Dave?

Nah, too old.

After a long list of old friends, friend's friends and their friends, Bulma almost gave up.

"NO" she said out loud. "I refuse to give up"

Now, where do people meet other people?

School or work, pubs, malls, clubs, dance bars, sports centres, the amount of possibilities was endless.

Ok, I'm definitely _not_ going back to school! Bulma grinned to herself at the thought.

And she wasn't the kind of girl to pick someone, more like _anyone_, up at a pub and take him home. The best thing would be to meet him at an association for a sport or hobby, like chess, but she wasn't likely to find any very hot guys there… bodybuilding would definitely work, but she did want to seem a little more serious than that, meaning that she had to be able to participate herself. Hmmmm…this really was harder than she thought…

* * *

Vegeta slammed the door of the GR shut. What _was_ it with him these days?! He just couldn't focus anymore! Halfway his training for the night he'd decided to give up. Yes, Vegeta had decided to give up, for today that was. The blasted woman just kept invading his thoughts, memories of her laughing, fuzzing around the house, reading a science magazine in a big red chair, putting his laundry up the clothesline…it was totally and utterly distracting. And he didn't even know what the hell was so fascinating about her. 

Besides, he could use some extra sleep, considering she wouldn't leave him in peace at night either. He'd use the time to try and clear his head.

He took a deep breath and sat down in the damp grass, right beside the GR, in it's shadow. He closed his eyes and opened them again and breathed in the fresh twilight air. The sky was very clear tonight. For a moment, Vegeta looked whether there was a full moon, but remembered that Piccolo had once destroyed Earth's one moon.

Planet Vegeta had had three moons, Yalkan, Ulbereth and Gyanoth. The Sayains had always believed that their planet's guardian lived on those moons, before he gave up on planet Vegeta and the Sayain's evilness. Some of the sayains hoped that he might return to it some day and they had build a temple on Yalkan, the biggest moon and kept it clean and well prepared for the day their guardian might return. But when planet Vegeta was destroyed, the power of the explosion had also wiped out all of those moons and along with them their hope…

He shook off the depressing thoughts and let himself fall back in the grass. Since he'd left the GR the world around him had rapidly become dark and the garden lamps automatically switched on now, setting it in a beautiful dim light.

He became engulfed in tracing the star signs. So far he could only make out Orion and the polar star. Just as he started to relax, he heard something. It sounded like a car coming his way.

Only half a minute later the headlights of something that could hardly be called a car started to show and a blonde guy pulled over on Bulma's large driveway.

Suprisingly, Bulma herself got out and the guy walked over to her side of the car. They were mumbling something Vegeta couldn't really catch, but it sounded polite and perhaps even a little shy. He watched Bulma wave goodbye to the man and saw him leave.

* * *

Bulma took a deep breath. What a night it had been. After working her way trough a large list of long-lost friends and acquaintances, the face of Mick finally popped up in her head and she remembered him inviting her on a date about half a year ago. Of course she'd never really considered it, because at the time she'd still been involved with Yamcha. But right now he was exactly what she was looking for… 

She'd met him when he was modelling for the Capsule Corp. merchandise clothing. He'd been a famous model for years and her mom had managed to get him to do it. Although he was only 20 years old, he didn't seem to think that was a problem and he told her she was beautiful and if she wanted to have dinner with him sometime?

She'd immediately decided to call him and that's how she ended up on this 'date'. However, it didn't quite turn out the way she'd hoped. He took her to a cute pancake ship and of course she thought it was very cute and she really didn't want to seem spoiled, but she would've preferred something less childish.

Apparently others had thought so too. Young parents were trying to get their little brats to just sit down and eat, but they kept flying off to see the clown, their pancakes getting could. Grandma's and grandpa's were giving them strange looks, while trying to teach their grandchildren some table manners.

Somewhere behind Bulma a girl had been crying, because she didn't like her 'surprise' and she really wanted what her brother had gotten, after all, she was five, and thus way to old for a Barbie doll.

It had been almost impossible to have a conversation and after a while Bulma just gave up.

A soon as they'd gotten out of the restaurant her stomach was only half filled and she had had an incredible headache. All she'd wanted was to go home.

Mick himself hadn't exactly been what she'd expected either. Apparently, about three months ago he'd made an ignorant racist remark on 'how he really hated Morocco and all it's inhabitants', and that was already a censored version. Ever since then, nobody had wanted to work with him anymore and so he'd been unemployed for quite a while. And even worse, he'd gotten fat.

But Bulma didn't want to seem rude, so she'd proposed to have an ice-cream at the cart across the street. They'd sat down on a bench, licking their ice-cream and chatting about work and general things.

Bulma had tried to make conversation and wanted to tell him something about the amazing accomplishments her father had made designing the GR and tried to explain the basics of gravity simulation. However, Mick never even finished High School and he was an alfa, much more into art and photography. Bulma noticed he didn't understand a thing she was saying and so she didn't attempt to explain further and just told him that what they had done had never been done before and it was a very important scientific discovery. He understood that much.

After a little more chit-chat Bulma had started thinking of ways to get out of there. He was too young, too fat, too childish and simply too stupid. Although Yamcha hadn't been smart either, at least she and him shared to secrets of the Earth's special forces and their adventures. But even with him it _had_ been a little bit annoying sometimes, the way he just couldn't begin to comprehend what she was talking about, the things that should be possible. She just wished there would be someone she could discuss it with, someone to actually do suggestions, other than her dad.

So she'd smiled, popped the last part of her ice cream cone in her mouth and plainly told Mick she was getting tired. He'd brought her home immediately.

Suddenly, Bulma got the creepy feeling she was being watched. She turned around to look straight in Vegeta's eyes. Of course, she thought, she should've known it was him. The gleam of the garden lamps made his eyes look as if they were on fire, drawing a sharp contrast with the other, dark side of his face. Like this, he looked a little bit dangerous, but in a peaceful way. She felt her stomach twinge a little, like the way it usually did when she was 'on adventure'. She'd never been afraid of him, even though she knew what he was capable of. She seemed to trust he wouldn't harm her, without having a real reason for it.

But…hey… what was he doing out of the GR? Wasn't he normally still in there at this time?

She checked her watch. Almost midnight. Why did he stop earlier? And as nosy as Bulma is she thought:

Let's find out.

She walked towards him, but said nothing, because she knew it would only make him angry. He'd simply tell her to mind her own business and that would get her nowhere. So, she dropped down beside him and lay back in the grass on her elbows, letting out a satisfied sigh.

* * *

What was she doing now? Vegeta wondered. She didn't get out much, Vegeta knew, but now that she obviously _had_ gone out, she didn't seem happy about it at all. And now she just sat beside him, without saying anything, as if he'd invited her to do so. 

Oh, shit. There he went again, thinking about that woman! Well, he hardly could _not_ think about her when she was sitting next to him. He decided to continue his earlier occupation of watching the stars, but he couldn't focus anymore.

Who had that man been? And why was _he_ with Bulma? Wait. Why would _I_ care who Bulma goes out with? Or had it been the moron again? No, probably not.

Like that, they sat in silence for about half an hour, each lost in their own thoughts.

Finally, Vegeta's curiosity got the better of him.

"Don't tell me the idiot has traded his car for that piece of junk?"

Bulma looked up, surprised at his sudden question and shifted her position to a sitting one.

"No. As I already told you, the idiot and I have broken up, so even if he _did_, what would it be doing on _my_ doorstep?"

Vegeta chuckled a little at that, realising Bulma herself had just referred to Yamcha as the idiot.

"For your information, I was on a date." Bulma proudly said.

Vegeta raised his eyebrows at her and said: "With another one of those morons, I bet"

Her head sunk and to his surprise she said: "Well, I can't deny that it wasn't exactly a blast".

'Good.' Vegeta thought, but his face remained emotionless. She finally started to speak again.

"He took me to damn childish a pancake-restaurant, for gods sake! I've never been on such an awful date! He was a _total_ moron! And after looking at Vegeta, she added, "No, really, he was even dumber than Yamcha!"

Vegeta had an amused smile on his face, which encouraged Bulma to go on. She didn't care anymore of making en entire fool out of herself. She told him all about her date and concluded with: "Perhaps he should try to find a girlfriend at kindergarten. And a fat one at that! She giggled a little, finding it very funny all of a sudden.

He used to be a model you know, but I was quite surprised to find he'd gotten _that_ fat! She was now laughing at her disaster date.

At this Vegeta cut in:

"For a human, he seemed to have an average body-weight"

"Average?"

"Your planet has a lot of people who've apparently never heard of the word 'train'."

"Right. But average? His belly was showing over his pants!" She said disgustedly.

Vegeta smiled. "For a human, that's average."

"I think I would've preferred your planet then"

He cocked his eyebrow. "How would you know?"

"Well, when I look at you… …and Goku of course and how much you two love to fight, then all of the Sayains must train so much"

"Not all, but in general, we were much better-trained, yes"

Things went silent again for a while.

"But I still think he's fat. Even for a human. But then, maybe that's because I''m used to being around y…people who have almost godly bodies."

He looked at her form, her foot gently tapping a tune only she could hear. Was she nervous? Did she just almost say…you?

His eyes wandered up to her face.

Their eyes locked.

Wow, she really had amazing eyes, Vegeta thought. She slowly raised her hand to put a lost strand of hair behind her ear.

Vegeta couldn't help himself, he swayed forward a little. Their mouths were only inches apart now.

Vegeta felt a strange sort of tension he'd never felt before. He wanted so badly to…

"I'm going inside" Bulma said, getting up. "It's getting cold now"

She shivered and she mentally kicked herself. Did she just almost….kiss Vegeta?"

* * *

Ha! So how was that? 

REVIEW!!!!


	9. The Quest

Ok, it has been quite a while. I decided to update. I added titles to the seperate chapters. Hope you guys enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 9 

Bulma slowly opened her eyes to the daylight that was shining through her curtains. . She lay still and wondered what the time was. 'It must still be early' she figured. since she could still smell the dawn and hear some of the pigeons that lived just outside her balcony chirp, it couldn't be past noon. She stretched lazily, swung her legs over her bedside and wiggled them a little bit, getting the stiff feeling out of them. She stood up, grabbed a towel from her linen cupboard, locked the bathroom, unlocked it, got a washing cloth, locked it again and jumped under the shower. That's when the memories of yesterday evening came back to her.

And what a weird night it had been. She wanted to know she was still pretty, but she had never really gotten an answer from Mick. It was hard to decide whether or not a guy liked you, if all you did was constantly try to get away from him, like she'd done. He couldn't possibly have liked her. But not because she wasn't attractive, more because their interests were to far apart. There simply wasn't a click, as people like to call it. She put shampoo in her hair and started rubbing it in, enjoying it's flowery smell.  
And then there had been Vegeta. And the thing that had happened. Or didn't happen. Almost happened. Had it even?

Her curiosity had made her sit next to him and they had actually talked, really talked, for the first time. She somehow started to see him in a different light over the past year. She realised that she never once felt threatened by Vegeta. She was just…interested. He was an interesting person, a mystery that, much like a science project, just screamed to be solved.  
She rinsed out her hair and put in conditioner.  
From the first moment she met him…, no even before that, from the first moment she had heard about him she had been intrigued by his character. After he started living in her house, her fascination had only gotten bigger. She had discovered that in many ways they were very much alike. They both knew what they wanted, how to get it and wouldn´t give up until they had it. Not easily anyway. Maybe that was why there had been a little tension…surely she hadn't imagined that?

He had leaned in to her, hadn't he? -- Of course he had! If not, she would seriously be very sexually frustrated to even come up with such a thing. Then again, why would he? He didn't even like her!

--Oh, doesn't he?—There was that annoying little voice again. Bulma rolled her eyes. – He seems to listen to you…and he's never ever even tried to hurt you…

Because there's no point in hurting me. In the end, he's going to need someone to fix his machine and find him new toys. Besides, he hardly listens to me. When I told him to take it slow, because he was injured, he actually told me to go away and leave him alone. Like I said, he doesn't listen to me at all.

-- More then he listens to anyone else anyway--

Well, yeah, but that doesn't automatically mean he wants to kiss me! Or that I want to kiss him!

-- You have almost done that already'--

I have not! And even if we did almost kiss, at least I didn't initiate it.

Satisfied with this answer, she pulled out a razor and started shaving her left leg. Until the voice started again:

-- Well, if you haven't initiated it, then that can mean only one thing, right?. –

She stopped dead in her tracks. Oh my!  
That would mean that he had. Hey…wait a minute! He couldn't…

Memories of the past year flew by before her eyes; his return to her home, his silent tolerance towards her, the way he insulted her every now and then, just in a teasing manner. The way he watched her, when she was working on a big project. Or the occasional smile he sent her when she was beaming over a finished and successful invention. Or victory dancing trough the house (she was still ashamed he saw that). Ok, so maybe he didn't totally hate her. That didn't mean anything!

The way he'd looked when Yamcha and herself were having fun in the pool on that hot summer day…"

No! Stop that! He just hated Yamcha. It didn't have anything to do with her. Although he'd had an uncommon dislike for Yamcha right from the start. And Yamcha to him, of course. A thought suddenly occurred to her…wouldn't it be something if she started a relationship with Vegeta? She laughed out loud. Yamcha would be sooooo pissed!

Hold it! Was she actually considering this?

Well, she was pretty sure her Mum would approve…after all, hadn't she once said she wouldn't let a man like that walk away? By this time, her hot water had run out, but Bulma didn't notice.

She had to admit, Vegeta really did have perseverance. He had his plans all mapped out: As soon as he'd reach Super-Saiyan, he'd defeat the androids and try to beat Goku.

All of a sudden Bulma was convinced he was actually going to succeed. And now that she thought about it; she hoped he would succeed, well, except for the killing-goku-part. But then again, he never said he would kill Goku, he just wanted to prove he was stronger. That sounded a lot better already. Bulma smiled, stepped out of the shower and dried of. Pulling on her bathrobe, she walked towards her closet, still deep in thought.

But she couldn't go through with it. What if Vegeta really did like her…? She couldn't use somebody like that unless there were no strings attached. That only left her with one option.

To find out whether or not the prince wanted her.

So, she pulled on a nice red dress, with stockings of course, considering it was November, and a pair of boots with a short heel. Next she went downstairs to grab some breakfast. The morning rain was pouring, clouding up the windows, but she could tell by the little hum that came from outside that the GR was on. It almost seemed like it always was. Vegeta still trained every day for at least 14 hours. It was about time he took a break anyway.

So, she prepared breakfast for the both of them. Naturally, Bulma was a great cook. After all, cooking was like science, only you didn't have to be so precise. Things just didn't explode as fast as most of her inventions. The reason she hardly ever cooked is that she just didn't enjoy it much. But today she was giving it her best. There was fish and some fresh meat, and she decided that Vegeta needed lots of vegetables and fruits, so she made a big salad. She also made a plate of sandwiches and squeezed oranges until they each had a glass of fresh orange juice.

She set the table and went to get Vegeta.

* * *

Vegeta had already been up for three hours when he heard a curt knock on the door of the GR. He immediately froze. That knock could only mean one thing…Bulma. SHIT! Did he even look alright? Weren't his clothes too torn up? He looked down and hurried off towards a mirror. Oh, it was ok. He hurried to open the door. But…what if he smelled? Wait a minute! Since when did he care?! 

He sniffed his armpit when he heard her call.

"Vegeta? Are you in there?"

"Of course I'm in here!" he yelled back at her, annoyed at his own silliness. "Who else would be in here?"

"Well, open the door already!" she demanded.

The doors opened with a hiss, showing Vegeta's angry face.

As soon as he saw her, for a reason he didn't quite understand himself, he held his breath. Vaguely he recalled thinking that she had looked her prettiest last night, but now he knew he had been wrong. Today she looked perfect. He slowly breathed out and shook his head to reorganise his thoughts.

"What do you want?" he said, though it didn't sound as demanding as he had wanted it to sound. 'You're becoming a weakling' he mentally scolded himself.

Coming face to face with him didn't leave Bulma unaffected either.

Sweat made his entire torso damp, letting it shine in the sun. She could see a big scar running across his chest. She lifted her hand a little to caress it, wondering what must have caused it, subconsciously wanting to take away that pain. Then the sound of his voice woke her up from her musings. She realised her hand was still hovering in mid-air and quickly used it to tuck a lost strand of hair behind her ear.

"I-I….uh… I made you breakfast" Bulma stuttered. Regaining her composure, she smiled and added. "I thought you might be hungry" She then proceeded to the kitchen, swinging her hips a little more than usual, leaving a baffled Vegeta to follow.

Vegeta shrugged his shoulders, grabbed a towel to wipe off his face and followed her to the kitchen. As soon as he saw the food he knew something was up. She rarely made him breakfast. Vegeta immediately was suspicious. This wouldn't have something to do with the events of last night, now would it?

All night he'd lain awake, wondering if his mind was cheating him. Had he really, for a moment. thought this woman worthy of him? Had he really almost tried to make her his?  
He refused to believe such a thing, attributing the whole evening to his own fantasy. But apparently she'd noticed the tension as well.

However, now that he'd had an entire night to think about things and to cool off, he knew that he would never give in to such a weakness.

He would sit here, and eat with her, and pretend he hadn't noticed a thing. He would be cold civility.

He sat down at the table and started eating the food. Bulma found out that unlike Goku, Vegeta had excellent table manners. And for a moment she saw him for what he was, a prince.

She ate in silence for some time, until she finished her second sandwich. She put some salad on her plate and offered him the rest. He simply nodded in acceptance. She ate her salad and finished eating.

He wasn't comfortable with the way she was staring at him now. He raised his speed and stood up to leave.

Bulma sighed and watched him go. While cleaning up and doing the dishes she realised that she hadn't gotten any further in her quest. What was she to do next?

* * *

Ok, perhaps not a very long chapter, but it's something. I don't know if and when I'll update again, I've got other things on my mind. Anyway, I'm still hoping that one day I'll finish this story. 


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